Massinissa Selmani: Choses fortuites, Château d’Oiron, France, 16.03 – 05.05.2019
Born in 1980 in Algiers, Algeria. Lives and works in France and Algeria.
A t on besoin des ombres pour se souvenir 1
About:
After studying computer science in Algeria, Massinissa Selmani graduated from the École supérieure des beaux-arts in Tours, France.
His work has subsequently been hailed by a special mention of the jury at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. In 2016, He received the Art [ ] Collector Prize (Paris) and the Sam Art Projects Prize for contemporary art (Paris).
Resolutions, 2017
Massinissa Selmani’s work aims to create drawn forms mingling a documentary approach with fictional constructions and animations, while taking as its point of departure contemporary political and social issues from press cuttings. Through confrontation, juxtaposition and even the superposition of actual elements, whose contexts have systematically been concealed, the artist creates enigmatic, ambiguous scenes unlikely to happen in reality, , bearing witness to the absurdity of human behaviours and always balances these depictions within the realms of the comical and the tragic, or architecture as an instrument of power. By arranging large white spaces and playing on effects of transparency and reserve, he invites us to fill in the gaps, to question the way we remember and write history, beyond any linear structure. In this way, he also raises questions about the production process but also the circulation and diffusion of media images, as well as the way they influence our perception of historical and current events.
Walk under a white sky, 2015
Alterable, 2016
Maquettes, 2015-206
Massinissa Selmani has in particular exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Dakar Biennial (Senegal), the Lyon Biennial (France), Art Basel (Basel), Zachęta National Gallery of Art (Poland), the Sharjah Biennial (UAE), IVAM Valencia (Spain), UGM Maribor (Slovenia), Frac Centre (France), the Modern Art Oxford (UK), the museum of African Art of Belgrade (Serbia), the Bandjoun station (Cameroon) among others. His work is part of public collections such as the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon and the Frac Centre (France).